


Bad Faith

by Ghastly_lemons



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco's family secrets, F/M, Hermione is researching, One Shot, Post-War, Rituals, Sex, Wards, boundless curiosity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:48:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28955985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghastly_lemons/pseuds/Ghastly_lemons
Summary: Draco has successfully kept away from Granger since coming back to Hogwarts, but unfortunately for him her boundless curiousity has unearthed a family secret and she's determined to learn all about it.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 21
Kudos: 243





	Bad Faith

“Excuse me Malfoy, do you have a moment?”

Draco Malfoy jumped a little as his concentration on his essay about the correct method to increase the yield of dittany was broken by the polite request. Blinking owlishly at the interloper, he was genuinely surprised to find none other than Hermione Granger standing in front of him dressed in plain denims and a Muggle shirt with some sort of declaration about smashing pumpkins on it. It took him a good minute to reorientate himself because he and Granger had very successfully avoided each other since returning to complete their NEWTs after the battle of Hogwarts, and he had absolutely no idea why she would seek him out after six months of blessed peace and quiet.

Granger shifted a little on her feet and raised an eyebrow at him. “Malfoy?”

Shaking himself out of his shock, he gestured to one of the other chairs in the empty classroom he had chosen to haunt as he completed his homework. “Sorry Granger, I was concentrating and didn’t expect anyone to find me.” Dropping his quill on his essay he gave her his full attention. “What brings you here?”

Sitting down with a tight smile that didn’t even come close to looking genuine, Granger reached into the tattered little bag she carried with her everywhere and pulled out at least twenty books, talking as she stacked them up. “Sorry to interrupt you, Malfoy. I just needed to ask you some questions about an independent research project I’m working on. Well, it’s really two projects that became one.”

Draco turned his head a little to see the tittles of the books and raised his pale gold brows in surprise. “Binding magic and wards? What on earth are you up to, Granger?” He kicked himself a little for his snarky tone, fun as it may be, riling up the witch in front of him would do no good. She was not only faster than him with a hex, but he was very nearly persona non grata amongst the wizarding populace for his part in the war while she was lauded as a hero for hers. There was also the matter that he had watched her be tortured on his drawing room floor and done nothing. He figured he owed her at least the semblance of decent manners.

Huffing a little, Granger flipped open the top book to a specific page and set it aside, reaching for the next book with a quelling glance at Draco. “Nothing sinister, I developed an interest in wards last year and was researching binding magic because of Harry. I didn’t expect them to dovetail like they did.” She continued to flip open the books and lay them out over the table while she lectured him in that swotty tone of hers that never failed to raise his hackles.

Draco leaned over to read one of the pages upside down. “Oh? Care to enlighten me?”

Pointing to one particular line, Granger spun the book around for him to better see. “I found it first when I was looking into warding places of residence.” She tapped the page and began to recite what it said, apparently from memory. “ _Such wards are considered strong and lasting. For the prime example one need look no further than the Bad Faith Protection._ I found references to this Bad Faith Protection in quite a few of the wards books I looked into. And then I began to research bonds for Harry, and imagine my surprise when I started finding references to the same thing in _those_ texts.”

Draco eyed her warily, knowing she had more to say but not sure he wanted to encourage her. “And? Why does this bring you here?”

Scoffing, Granger tsked at him. “Come now _Malfoy_ neither of us is stupid. Your name means Bad Faith, and I’m suddenly finding references to a Bad Faith Protection all over two subjects I’m interested in.” She swept her hand over the other books, stopping on one particularly thick book. “This isn’t even all of them, just the ones in my personal collection. Now, I thought at first it may have been a protection against people acting with bad faith against the caster, but then I came across this. _Salazar and Helga sought out the Bad Faith to add their protection to the stones beneath their students feet, to keep and to save their young minds._ From Hogwarts: A History.” She looked at him smugly, and Draco decided that drawing out this game would get him nowhere.

“Okay, you’ve caught me. But first…” He held up two long fingers between them, schooling his face into an expression he hoped would impress how serious he was upon the Muggleborn. “Two things you should know. First; it’s considered terribly rude to ask about family protections, hence why my families actual name is nowhere to be found in those texts.”

Granger’s mouth popped open in surprise. “Oh, I had no idea!” She wrinkled her nose at him and pursed her lips. “Sorry Malfoy.”

He waved her off. “No harm done, the problem with unspoken rules is that they are extremely hard to learn because no one will tell you they exist in the first place. Now, secondly, if you wish I will tell you about my family wards, but you have to promise not to hex me.”

Granger narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him and tilted her head back imperiously. “Okay.” She said slowly.

Draco felt the smirk bloom on his face and he leant back, lacing his hands behind his head as he studied the witch who’d ambushed him to question him about his families secret magic rituals. “Well Granger, the Bad Faith Protection is a complicated piece of ritual magic that requires two people to complete. Lots of runes and chanting, not too many clothes.” His smirk widened in direct proportion to Grangers suspicious glare and he found himself chuckling for the first time in quite a while. “Sex, Granger. The Bad Faith Protection is sex magic.”

-

Of all the reactions Draco had expected Granger to have to his taunt that the Bad Faith Protection was sex magic, not a single one of them led to her dragging him through a forest at the next full moon after smuggling him out under Potter’s invisibility cloak as soon as he was alone in a corridor after dinner.

“Granger.” He hissed at the woman dragging him through the dark woods. “This is insane, what the hell are you thinking?”

Granger stopped so suddenly that he nearly tripped over her and spun to face him with her hands on her hips. “You said you’d help me. I bought this land with the stupid money that came with the Order of Merlin they foisted on me, and now I want some nice strong protections.”

Draco ran his hands through his white hair and grimaced. “I said I’d help you research, not perform the ritual.”

Granger’s stance widened and her bushy hair seemed to grow several sizes in irritation. “What, not willing to help me because I’m Muggleborn?” Draco swore he saw her hair actually _spark_ and watched her carefully.

“Merlin, no! Look, I expected to help you figure out how to do it yourself and then you’d go get Weasel to do it. Aren’t you two a thing?”

Granger looked away, her face hardening. “No, as a matter of fact. He didn’t want to wait for me to finish my schooling. Besides, why would you want your family secret in the hands of the Weasley’s? I thought you’d hate that.”

Draco groaned and cracked his jaw in frustration. “Of course I wouldn’t want them having the keys to the Malfoy wards, but I sincerely doubt Weasel could remember them if he helped you with the ritual.” He pointed one finger at her, bending down slightly to bring his face more level with hers. “And you can’t seriously say you want to have sex with me. _Binding_ sex with me.”

Granger shrugged with exaggerated nonchalance. “You said the bond was to the land, not the people. Besides, it doesn’t have to mean anything once you help me set up the wards.”

Draco breathed heavily through his nose to stop himself from yelling at the crazy witch. “Granger, be serious. You know that’s not entirely true.”

Granger rolled her eyes in the post dusk gloom and crossed her arms obstinately. “Yes, yes. You said it could bind people if they were compatible.” She looked him up and down somewhat scathingly. “You seriously think we’re compatible?”

Biting his tongue, Draco counted silently to ten so he wouldn’t say something he’d regret. “Granger, I have no bloody idea. Do you seriously want to run the risk of essentially being married to me? Forever? Why are you so blasted set on this?”

Granger’s stiff posture crumbled slightly, suddenly becoming helpless and she scuffed her boots on the forest floor. “I want to feel safe, okay? I spent every free moment in the last six months looking for the most powerful wards and enchantments I could to protect this place and I’ve got every single one I could find or invent on it. Except the one ward that every single text seemed to agree was the most powerful available.” Her chin wobbled and Draco realised that she was crying. “I just want to feel safe. It’d be worth the risk, right? There’s no way we’d end up bound to each other of all people.”

Draco stared at her for a moment before hesitantly reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. “Granger, I understand, but there’s no way we can say for sure it wouldn’t happen.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the last of Granger’s bravado seemed to drain out of her and she buried her face in her hands as her whole body shook with wrenching sobs that seemed dragged from her by some inescapable force. “I can’t rest, alright! I can’t sleep, or eat, or laugh, or smile, or _anything_. Everything feels like I’m being hunted and I’m so _tired_. I can’t do it anymore, I need to feel safe, to have a place that I know no one can hurt me.” 

The garbled words were muffled by her hands and gasping breaths, but Draco understood the sentiment behind them all too well. He hadn’t felt safe since the summer after Fourth year when he came home to find the Dark Lord camped in his guest wing. At first it had been a creeping unease that he’d put down to Voldemort’s unusual appearance, but it hadn’t been long before the cruelty started to seep into his pampered life and the unease became a chilling fear of what would happen to him and his family next. By the time he’d stepped into his receiving room after fifth year, he’d barely been surprised to find his mother bound and bloodied at the feet of his smirking aunt and her master.

“Granger, I get it. I really do. But you can’t be rash. You’re powerful enough that I doubt anyone could breach your protections. You don’t need to risk being bound to a failed Death Eater for life.”

Granger responded by burying her face into his school shirt and sobbing, smearing him with her tears and making him grunt in surprise as he braced himself so they didn’t tumble to the ground. “But we won’t be right? You hate me, right down to my blood.”

Draco uncomfortably patted the back of the witch suffering a nervous breakdown into his chest. She’d given absolutely no indication she was anything more than ravenously curious about his families specialised wards before tonight, and he hadn’t questioned it because absolutely everyone knew that was her default state. He really should have seen this coming though, no one came through what she had unscathed.

“I don’t hate your blood, Granger. None of that matters. At worst I find you mildly annoying these days.” He sighed and wrapped his arms around her fully, trying to offer her something stable in the midst of the whirlwind of emotions plaguing her. “Don’t let your fear bind you to someone like me. I’ll help you next full moon and you can find someone else if you still want to.”

Granger gripped his shirt in her fists and shook her head. “Please. _Please._ ” Tremors ran through her whole frame. “I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be scared another day without losing my mind. Even if we end up bound, I swear I won’t expect anything of you. You can just pretend it doesn’t exist, go marry someone else and I’ll live here and you’ll never have to see me again.” Her hands tightened until Draco could hear the seams at his shoulder and collar creak under the strain. “ _Please_ Draco.”

“Granger.” He gripped her shoulders and pushed her back until he could see her face, blotchy from her pain and twisted in fear. “You know it won’t work that way, I explained it to you not two days ago that the binding magic would supersede any other bonds either of us could attempt. If it happened we’d never be able to have a proper marriage or anything of the sort with anyone else.”

Granger’s eyes were too glazed with her terror, and against his better judgment Draco found himself wondering if it would be so terrible to be bound to Granger and hide away with her in a safe little parcel of land in the middle of nowhere. The treacherous thought worms its way through his mind faster than a lightning strike and leaves him breathless.

The words slip off his tongue before he can stop himself. “Okay. If you’re sure, then I’ll do it.”

It takes a moment before the words sink through to Granger, but when they did her brown eyes cleared a little and the vulnerability on her face nearly broke his blackened heart. “Really? Even if you end up stuck with me?”

Draco pulled the surprisingly short witch back into him and patted her wild hair as he held her gently, waiting until her shivering had subsided enough that he thought her more rational side might be able to make an appearance. “Honestly, as loath as I am to admit it, I’m more worried about _you_ being stuck with _me_.”

To Draco’s mild surprise, Granger lets go of his hopelessly crumpled shirt to smooth her hands over it with a wandless cleaning charm before tentatively bringing her arms around his narrow waist and linking her hands behind his back. “I thought a lot about that. And… I think that in the unlikely event we do end up bound, we can probably figure something out. What about you?”

Draco sighed and turned his head to rest a cheek on her curls, twitching his long nose when a stray hair tickled it. “Well given I had no idea until about ten minutes ago that this is what you planned… I guess we’ll see.”

-

Draco shouldn’t have been surprised that Granger had managed to perfectly create an altar for the ritual, but he is. For a disorienting moment he was sure he was somehow back on the Manor grounds staring at the altar his family had used for generations to conduct their various rituals and ceremonies. They were in the middle of a perfectly circular clearing standing in front of a huge slab of natural granite carved with runes that seem to dance over the surface in the rising moonlight, evading the eye when Draco tried to focus on them directly but staying still if he looked at them in his peripheral vision.

“Granger, did you buy the property for the altar?” Draco ran a reverential finger along the smooth granite slab, feeling the crystal structure within hum with magic under the grey surface.

Granger shook her head. She’d cleaned herself up and looked once again like the woman who could take on the world with nothing more than her brain and her bravery. “No, after you taught me how I came here on the new moon and set it up.”

Draco’s breath leaves him in a surprised exhale. Even though he knew that must have been the answer, hearing her speak of it so flippantly still shocks him. “Merlin, do you know how difficult that is? When my family alter was set up it took three witches working in tandem at the new moon on winter solstice. And I don’t think this one is any less powerful than the one back at the Manor.” He considered the witch next to him with awe as he placed his hand flat on the surface of the altar. “This is amazing Granger.”

Granger shrugged one shoulder diffidently and looked down around the clearing to ensure everything was still as it should be. “Oh, well I guess you were able to tell me exactly how. That probably helped.”

Sensing that it would take too much time to get her to see how crazy that was, Draco dropped that line of reasoning for the moment and resolved to figure out just how powerful Granger was at a later date. He was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he’d have a good deal of time after they completed the wards. “I see. Well, it must be getting close to midnight. What preparations are left?”

Granger reached into her battered bag and extracted a crate at least five times the size of the little clutch. “I think I have everything in here, and I skipped dinner to carve the boundary runes around the property line. It’s-“ She checked the small silver watch on her wrist as she set the crate down. “About quarter to eleven. So we have a bit over an hour to set up and consecrate, and then there’s a natural spring about fifty meters east that we can use to bathe and anoint ourselves before drawing the runes.” Her bossy tone amused Draco instead of irritating him for once. Granger sounded like she was planning homework, not preparing to shag her school yard nemesis in a ritual that was quite possibly going to do a whole lot more than establish the wards around her little parcel of land.

“Granger, I know I already asked this, but are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this tonight?” Draco peered into the crate and watched Granger out of the corner of his eye.

Granger’s softly pointed chin set stubbornly and her shoulders straightened. “Yes, I’m sure. I want these wards, and I’m willing to risk the bond if you are.”

Draco laughed dryly and began pulling things out of the crate and setting them on top of the altar, careful not to crush or ruin any of it. “Such a Gryffindor.” He teased. “Well, I guess we’ll just see what happens. You ready to begin?”

Nodding, Granger reached into the crate and withdrew a length of butter-soft white leather. “I am.”

Draco moved the other objects into easy reach of them both and held her eyes with his silver ones as he reached to take one end of the leather. “Then let’s begin.”

Moving carefully to stay reasonably in sync with each other, Draco and Granger stretched the leather out between them and spoke in unison.

“We begin with Leather, the protection we seek.”

Draco swept a fresh oak branch over the leather once it lay on the alter, tossing it aside as soon as the last leaf left the altar.

“We clear with Oak, to bring us strength.”

Granger placed four heavy black gems at the four cardinal directions, and Draco began to feel the pulse of the magic even though he wasn’t touching the altar.

“We ground with Obsidian, to absorb all harm.”

Draco and Granger each took up a dagger, his gold and hers silver, and slashed their palms. Laying their hands at either end of the leather they slowly moved their hands towards the middle until they met.

“We offer blood from silver and gold, to bind and tie the protections to the land and those who love it.”

As soon as their blood trails met the entire altar blazed with light, the crystals trapped within the rock flaring gold and silver and then sucking the light into themselves again until the night was again dark and undisturbed.

Blinking the spots from their eyes, Draco and Granger stared at the altar for a moment before Granger stepped closer to it and bent over to inspect it without touching. “That was surprisingly simple.”

“A lot of really old magic is. It’s often the power required and the clarity of intention that makes it difficult.” Draco withdrew his wand and healed the cut on his hand as he inspected the altar as well. “It looks like it worked, so when you’re ready we can begin the next step.”

Healing her own cut with wandless magic, Granger turned her head to the east with a carefully blank expression and then looked back at Draco with a decisive nod. “This way.”

-

On the short walk to the nearby spring, Granger made Draco nearly trip over his own feet when she casually mentioned that she’d taken care of contraception.

“I calculated my cycle and we should be safe today, and I’ve also taken a potion that should pause my cycle for the next month. I brewed it myself and ensured there were none of the ingredients you mentioned could interfere with the wards.” Her tone was so matter of fact that Draco nearly swallowed his own tongue. He didn’t think he’d ever heard a witch talk about such things with a wizard in his entire life. He decided it must be a Muggle thing and straightened up to cover his shock.

“I’m fairly certain I mentioned no such thing.” He bites out.

Granger glanced over her shoulder with an arch expression on her face. “Merlin, you wizards are so prudish about birth control. No, but you did mention things that I needed to make sure were nowhere near the altar. I inferred that that meant not in my body either.” She turned back around and continued walking. “Will it be a problem?”

Draco searched through his knowledge of the ritual and slowly shook his head before realising she wouldn’t have been able to see that. “No, we should be fine.”

Granger nodded again and waved a hand to push aside the branches of a dense shrub blocking the path. “Excellent. We’re here.”

The spring is, in a word, idyllic. Lush grass and moss surrounded a deep pool fringed in places with slender reeds. A softly tinkling brook rushed over smooth stones to feed clear water to the pool, keeping the water clean and clear.

“This looks good.” Draco crouched down and dipped his fingers into the water, flicking the cold drops from his fingers as he stood back up. “A bit chilly, but we shouldn’t die of exposure or anything.”

Granger snorted behind him. “Yeah, I’d cast a warming charm, but you said we couldn’t.” He turned around and saw she was trying, and failing, to conceal a mischievous smile. “Don’t worry Malfoy, I won’t judge.”

Realising what she was alluding to, Draco fixed her with a flat stare. “Ha. Ha.”

“Sorry Malfoy, I’ll play nice. Cross my heart.” Still snickering at him, Granger reached for the hem of her shirt and began lifting it over her head.

Draco spun around on his heel, nearly toppling into the spring. “Merlin Granger, warn a bloke.”

“Oh come off it Malfoy, you’re about to be _inside me_. Me being topless is the least of your worries.” Suddenly her breath caught, and Draco heard her voice turn small and uncertain. “Or… are you having second thoughts?”

Gritting his teeth, Draco turned around to face the witch, silently thanking Magic and Merlin that her shirt was still in place. “Granger, I have had _twentieth_ thoughts about this since you sprang it on me. But I give you my word as a Malfoy I won’t back out on you.”

Granger’s shaky smile only lasted a moment before solidifying into the determined look that he knew a little too well. “Thank you Malfoy. Now, it’s getting close to midnight, we really need to get moving. So am I allowed to get undressed now?”

Throwing up his hands in resignation, Draco turned his back and began undoing the buttons of his school shirt. “Fine. I guess you’re right and it does defeat the purpose of being here if we aren’t… disrobed.” He pointedly ignored the sniggering witch behind him and cursed her mood swings as he shucked his trousers and stepped into the frigid water to bathe.

The bathing didn’t take long to complete, neither of them wanting to stay in the water longer than necessary. Draco kept his back to Granger the whole time, but was fairly sure she didn’t bother to afford him the same courtesy. The little ripples that dashed between them certainly seemed to indicate that she was rather vigorous in her bathing at least. Not that he’d expected any less from her, disastrous hair aside she was always rather tidy.

Eventually he heard her exit the pool and rustling that told him she’d pulled the loose canvas robe over her head. “You can turn around now, I’ve covered my extremely important modesty. I’ve even hidden my precious eyes.” Granger’s voice resonated with hidden laughter, and Draco felt his lips turn up in response.

Huffing and affecting an exaggerated scowl, Draco turned around to wade out of the pool and found that Granger was facing full towards him with her hands over her eyes and a broad smile on the full lips. “I have no idea how you’re so cavalier about this. I’d rather expected you to be a prude.”

Granger laughed, her hands barely staying over her eyes. “Lived in a tent for a year with two boys, remember?” Before Draco could sort through the connotations of that statement she continued. “There’s only so many times I could accidentally walk in on Harry when he was getting changed before I stopped caring.” She sniggered again. “Though I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised nudity upsets you, neither Harry or Ron ever got used to it.”

Draco pulled the canvas robe over his head, grimacing at the rough texture on his wet skin. “Well, so long as one of us is comfortable. I’m decent now, shall we head back?”

Dropping her hands, Granger smiled at him and turned to march back to the clearing. “Thank you for this, I mean it. I honestly didn’t expect you to be so uncomfortable. When we discussed it you seemed very comfortable with talking about sex.”

Matching his longer strides to hers, Draco thought about that. He had been quite comfortable talking about it in theory, so he could understand her surprise. The Bad Faith Protection was something that his parents had discussed with him many times, as it was a very important part of his birth right and duties. But to actually be putting it into practice was something he’d always pictured in the misty future, not the immediate present. “Perhaps it’s that I never would have expected you to want to do it with me. Risk of bonding aside, I thought you’d rather punch me than even talk about it with me.”

Granger hummed. “Well, maybe before I would have. But as I confessed to you earlier, I’m rather desperate. I… I meant it when I said I’m not sure I could last another month.” Her huge brown eyes looked up at him in the moonlight, bleached of their warm tones into such deep pools of darkness that Draco wondered if he would fall into them. “I know it’s not as chancy as some of the things we did during the war, but I really appreciate you doing this with me.” Her small hand crept into his and squeezed gently. “Thank you Draco.”

Swallowing thickly, Draco squeezed back, his eyes still caught by hers. “You’re welcome.”

-

Standing next to the altar made the situation suddenly very real for Draco. Watching Granger line up three little stone bowls filled with oils of clove, lime, and juniper made it even more so.

“Okay, are you ready to start? We have ten minutes to get the runes done and begin.” Granger looked steady, but Draco didn’t miss how her hands shook a little as she stared at the bowls.

“I am. Are you… okay?” 

Granger looked sharply at him. “I’m fine. Just making sure I have the runes in my head.” She scowled at the bowls again. “This would be a lot easier if I could just _draw_ the runes, instead of having to get my magic to do it.”

Draco sighed, an amused quirk to his lips. “I did mention that old magic is only _outwardly_ simple.” He reached for the collar of his robe and caught her eye. “Remember, once the robes are off we can’t say a word.”

Granger nodded decisively and reached for her own robe. “Okay, let’s begin.”

Once the robes were discarded Draco couldn’t help but allow himself a moment of appreciation. Granger was still obviously too thin from her time on the run, her ribs still a little too stark and her collarbone a tiny bit too prominent. But under the light of the full moon her many scars and proud bearing gave her the air of a warrior goddess, a Valkyrie sent to weigh his soul for Valhalla. Draco watched her stand still and straight and for the first time in all these weeks of discussing sex with her began to feel the stirring of arousal pool in his belly. Her wet curls were still wild and unbowed, and the scar he’d helplessly watched be carved into her skin spoke of her unbreakable spirit. Even knowing that the reason she was standing naked under the full moon with him was her driving fear, he couldn’t help but be amazed by her resilience and strength. Granger hadn’t cowered into her fear, she’d met it head on and found a place to protect herself so she could heal.

He was only broken from his reverie by Granger extending her smooth arm to hover her hand over the clove oil, a question in her dark eyes. Lifting his arm to join hers, they dipped their first fingers into the oil then brought them to rest against the skin just below each other’s collarbones. 

Draco watched the oil creep over Grangers olive skin from underneath his finger, focusing on the runes he needed it to form with all his might. The further the oil crawled from his finger, the brighter it shone on her skin, looping into the lines and swirls of the ancient runes and then breaking off to move onto the next. Within a minute her shoulders were covered with a cloak of shining symbols, all detailing protection that was tied deep into the earth, and he knew that he looked the same. 

Without hesitation they both reached for the lime oil, dipping their middle finger into the oil and pressing it just below the sternum this time. The runes that spread from his pale finger shone even brighter than the ones over her shoulders and collarbone. The runes that formed the band tied the protections to the sky and air, which is what made the Bad Faith protection so strong in the first place. Draco couldn’t even feel even slightly embarrassed as his eyes traced his families secrets over her skin, the silvery runes defining the dip of her waist and making him ache to put his hands there to draw her to him, skin to skin, breath to breath.

Their ring fingers dipped in juniper oil touched just below the belt line, and the intimacy of touching Granger’s warm skin over her womb nearly brought Draco to his knees. He was held helplessly in thrall as he watched the runes that tied the wards to the water curved over her flared hips, shining like a beacon and making his mouth water in anticipation. He could hear Granger’s breath shorten, and saw her small breasts heave in his peripheral vision and spared the smallest thought to be grateful that the lick of magic over their skin was affecting her as it was him.

As soon as the final runes were in place, Draco didn’t even need to ask for permission to lift Granger onto the altar. Just as his pale hands reached for her she stepped into him and accepted his help with parted lips and hooded eyes. By the time she’d laid herself back on the leather covering to wait for Draco to join her, he was unbelievably hard. Draco had never thought of Granger in such a way before, but seeing her spread out before him and covered in runes known only to his family he had no doubt that this ritual was not going to be one that let them walk away from each other. Moreover, there was no question left in his soul that he wanted that. Merlin how he wanted that. Seeing Granger in his family runes had awoken something deep within him and the way she let her smooth thighs part to welcome him between them filled him with a hunger to claim her and join his tainted brand of power to her purer one.

Finally crawling onto the altar he looked down upon the witch that had dragged, cajoled, and somewhat guilted him into this. The dark hair that spread beneath her spoke of wild magic, and her scarred skin made him want to map it. As he waited for the exact moment of midnight he felt her own eyes inspecting him, a tangible brush across his skin that peeled back his every defence and left him feeling like she was absolving his sins. He shuddered when her eyes roamed over the scars that twisted over his chest, then nearly whined when her eyes paused on his left forearm and the faded stain on it. Before he could move to hide it though, her small hand gently stroked it and the contact made him sag a little over her, relief that she wasn’t running as far as she could flooding him.

Before their mutual exploration could go any further though, the runes over their bodies began to pulse in time with their heart beats. Draco watched the glow brighten and fade in a syncopated rhythm for a moment before the beats began to coalesce into one. In the breathless second before their hearts joined into one beat, he raised his pewter eyes to hers and asked a silent permission. There was no reluctance in her eyes or face, just rapt awareness of what was about to happen and acceptance.

The beats became one and Draco felt the moment was upon him. Eyes still locked with Grangers, he lowered himself onto her and felt himself begin to open her up. His parents had described the ritual as awkward and said it took a lot to get into the mood for it, but Granger was wet and warm around his unrelentingly hard cock as he slowly pushed into her, biting back a moan at just how good she felt. When he was fully seated in her, she tipped her head back in a soundless gasp, her eyes closed and her mouth open. Draco could feel the magic building around them, the cool spring air turning thick with power in a way that curled his toes and left him as breathless as the witch under him.

Once the magic reached a fever pitch, Draco had no conscious thought left to hang onto, all he could feel was the writhing of Granger under him and her eager hands urging him on in their silent coupling. Steadily he pulled out of her to push back in, his slow pace measured and metered by the pulse of their hearts and runes. As their hearts beat faster, so did he push into her faster. His hips began to snap into hers, and she began to flutter around him in the beginnings of an orgasm. Draco couldn’t even be proud that he’d gotten her that fast with next to nothing in the way of foreplay, because his entire existence was rapidly narrowing down to how tight she felt squeezing his cock and how hard it was to keep from moaning her name as he pounded into her.

Draco felt the coil in his belly wind tight and knew what was coming. Without thinking about it he ducked his head down and captured Granger’s lips in a heated kiss, swallowing down any sounds he could have made as she parted her lips to grant him access and slid her tongue to tangle with his. His movements became uncoordinated and her hands clutched at him harder. Together they shuddered and gasped until suddenly Granger went rigid and clamped down hard on him, tumbling him over the edge as he spilled into her and his vision went black.

-

It didn’t take long for Draco to come back to himself, or maybe it took an eternity. When he eventually regained his higher reasoning he pushed himself up slightly to check that Granger was okay.

“That was… extraordinary.” Of all the things he’d expected her to say, that was not really one of them. But Granger had a way of subverting his expectations that he was beginning to realise he quite liked.

“Agreed. How do you feel?”

Granger lazily stroked the skin of his ribs as she considered him. “Full. Satisfied. You?”

Draco smiled down at her, his heart feeling warm and soft when he saw his fingerprint still etched in silver under her collarbone. “Just perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> This may be a little rough, it popped into my head this morning and I banged it out very quickly. Hope it's enjoyable anyway.


End file.
